While the first trailer for Marvel's Eternals racked up some huge viewing figures, proving that the MCU shows no signs of slowing down, fans were quick to point out how close the cards were being kept to the studio's chest. While the footage did give us glimpses of Marvel's newest heroes, the plot and various other crucial details were left refreshingly vague. Walt Disney Studios' head of marketing, Asad Ayaz, has now discussed why they felt this was the best approach.
"If you saw the Eternals teaser, it really gave nothing away. It's just an introduction to the characters and tone. It was a very, very early tease. We have so much more to do on that. We will be very judicious because we do have other films and shows prior to Eternals hitting. And Eternals is such a special movie with all-new characters, and we have two Marvel movies prior to that. So that gives us an advantage in using those to expose people more to Eternals, but also spacing things out."
Though many were happy to see a MCU trailer that didn't spoil every little detail and essentially amount to watching the movie in three minutes, there were some who wondered why the approach seemed so different when compared to other Marvel outings.
"Loki and Black Widow are two very creatively unique properties. You look at the Shang-Chi trailer and the Black Widow trailer and the Eternals trailer teaser, they are all completely unique," Ayaz continued. "They don't feel they are bleeding into each other or redundant or repetitive in any way. So that's a wonderful thing for us to have as a marketing team. We are making sure that the way fans experience them is unique and special and it doesn't feel like you've got all these different Marvel properties hitting you at the same time."
Maintaining a unique feel to each installment within a shared universe is surely a daunting task, but as Ayaz points out, is crucial, especially when it comes to marketing. No one wants to feel like they are going to watch the same movie over and over again, and thankfully the likes of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals do so far feel quite different from each other whilst still clearly being set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Eternals picks up following the events of last year's comic book blockbuster event, Avengers: Endgame, and will introduce audiences to The Eternals, a species of immortal aliens from a distant planet who arrived on earth thousands of years ago and have been protecting humans since the dawn of time. Created by the Celestials, a race of powerful extra-terrestrial cosmic beings who have secretly lived on Earth for over 7000 years, The Eternals must reunite to protect humanity from their evil counterparts, the Deviants.
Directed by Oscar winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao and starring the likes of Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Gil Birmingham, Harish Patel, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie, Eternals is due for release on November 5, 2021, as part of Phase Four of the MCU. Here's hoping the marketing strategy continues, and we know next to nothing about the movie when we walk into theaters. This comes to us from The Hollywood Reporter.